Posers/Wannabes coming into the gym/school

I had a pretty unpleasant experience in my offseason training for wrestling last month, and wanted to see if my fellow Bullies had any similiar stories.

To start out with some background information, the high school I wrestle for has an "open door" policy in the off season. What this means is since only 6-7 people show up to off season practice, pretty much anyone from our school is able to show up and drill with us for an hour, and then take part in a challenge match against a wrestler close to their weight class.

I'm also gonna throw in that I started cross training BJJ 2 months ago at Power MMA here in Gilbert, which is how I know the guy I'm about to talk about was infact a poser.

Here's what happened:

I'm stretching before practice and talking with my buddy L.J., who is our Varsity 220, when this kid I didn't recognized comes in. with Hollywood Undead blasting through his headphones. He is wearing a UFC hat, Tapout shirt, and Everlast boxing shorts. I start talking to this guy. He tells me he's a Brazilillian jiu-jitsu prodigy, the next BJ Penn. He mentions tapping out "the beejayjay coach down at Power MMA"...(Andre would have killed this dude)...I nod, and ask him if he's done any ammy fights? He starts talking about knocking out all 5 of his last opponents with ground and pound. Me and LJ look at each other, and our coach starts the warm up.

During the warm up, the kid can't keep pace, and ends up dry heaving over the trash can. As we bring it in for Coach to give us our instructions for drills, the kid starts shadowboxing behind LJ.

Coach starts us will double leg drills, finishing on the mat with any pinning combination we want( pretty easy drill). The kid, since he's 6'2 and I'm 6'6''...bro fists me, and we start.

So he goes to "shoot" and does so in the double leg tackle style, as opposed to a wrestling double leg. I sprawl and reverse, and he says: Nice move, you gotta teach me that.

I mutter, maybe later, and we continue. I shoot my double leg, and go to finish high. I find an arm trying to snake across my neck. The poser falls backward, but doesn't use his legs to finish the guillotine, I escape, and tell him choking is illegal in collegiate wrestling. He tells me that, it infact is, he has seen it in the UFC, and WWE.

He shoots his shitty shot, and I sprawl and get front headlock. The guy taps out almost immediatly.

I shoot a fake shot, and then reshoot, lock my hands on the double, just as the arm tries to fight to my neck again,I slam the poser from 6 feet up. He lies there on the mat.

Standing drills continue this way. We get to riding drills. He right off the bat goes for a RNC, but again, doesn't get hooks in andI reverse and pin the kid.

Riding drills continue this way.

We cover technique on how to gator roll to cement mixer to get the pin. He gets in front headlock and tells me this is the perfect postition to work an armbar from, which he then tries to accomplish. He fails.

Technique drills continue this way.

Next is his challenge match, and everyone in the room gathered to watch. He loses horribly. After losing to me, he demands a lighter opponent, as he is only 160 and I am 195.( Forgetting that he chose me as a partner). So he challenges the little brother of one of our lightest wrestlers. The 4th grader he the tried to bully weighed 89 pounds and was barely 4'1. He gets ankle picked and pinned. Finally, he challenges LJ, who simply supplexes the dude.

Longstory short, the poser kid wrestles everyone on the mat, except for coach, and loses. And in every match he tried for some sort of submissions.

After practice, I ask him how it was, and he tells me it was extremely easy, and he wanted to thank us for helping him prepare for his next fight. I ask what gym he trains out of...he says....I swear to God...ATA Taekwondo at the strip mall accross from our school. I ask where he trains BJJ, and he responds with Pedro Sauer and Royce Gracie and Eddie Bravo. I say, where did you find a 10th Planet school with both Sauer and Gracie blackbelts teaching....the poser responds with, "well I'm self taught, mostly books and youtube clips."

Sorry for the long post.

Last edited by Clinchfighter; 5/06/2012 2:11am at .
Reason: spelling and grammer

Sounds like it was pretty pleasant rather than unpleasant for you. A wannabe straight from Central Casting shows up, starts dry-heaving when he has to exercise, sticks around to shadowbox and run drills with you guys despite that, fails at some illegal chokes but the coach doesn't see or at least doesn't intervene, confuses scholastic wrestling with the WWE, gets pinned by a fourth grader who happened be hanging around, and then wrestles everyone else (presumably between attacks of dry-heaving since he can't do the warm-up) only to lose horribly every time, and then he even provides his own punchline—he learns from video clips! Ha ha, on him. You're like a hero, having spotted him instantly and then coming here to report back a month later!

Sounds like it was pretty pleasant rather than unpleasant for you. A wannabe straight from Central Casting shows up, starts dry-heaving when he has to exercise, sticks around to shadowbox and run drills with you guys despite that, fails at some illegal chokes but the coach doesn't see or at least doesn't intervene, confuses scholastic wrestling with the WWE, gets pinned by a fourth grader who happened be hanging around, and then wrestles everyone else (presumably between attacks of dry-heaving since he can't do the warm-up) only to lose horribly every time, and then he even provides his own punchline—he learns from video clips! Ha ha, on him. You're like a hero, having spotted him instantly and then coming here to report back a month later!

Cool story bro.

The 4th grader practices with us because his older brother is on our team and enjoys the sport.

I am not claiming to be a hero or anything, just posting about an annoyance.

I posted this a month later because I have been studying for my finals so I can maintain eligibilty. I rarely use my laptop a month before finals.

Coach let the guy rest between matches, so it wasn't that bad for him.

Wait is this whole story about 9-16yr old kids acting tough in High School wrestling practice? Glad to hear you had fun, but honestly hearing that some teenage kid was talking smack and acting tough isn't very surprising.

Knowing is not enough, you must apply...
...Willing is not enough you must do ~Bruce Lee